All nursing roles share the same end goal of caring for the health of people.
Nursing informatics is the practice and science of integrating nursing information and knowledge with technology in order to enhance health-care delivery. This benefits patients and their families, as digital health technologies enable health-care teams to provide quality care in an accessible way.
Allison Chow made the switch from outpatient nursing to nursing informatics in virtual care. She was drawn to this field of work as she recognized her nursing background aligned with her natural aptitude for, and interest in, digital technology.
A day in the life of a nursing informatics specialist brings the opportunity to collaborate with other health-care teams to enhance workflow delivery and streamline applications.
This work includes creating resources to empower health-care providers with practices to deliver effective patient-centered virtual visits. She reviews the ever-changing climate of digital health and collaborates towards making sure virtual care data is presented in a standard format and language.
She works with a variety of clinical and technical teams, including mentoring co-operative students to foster learning and promote future growth within the organization. She collaborates with other government organizations to improve access to interpreters and closed captioning for those with limited English proficiency or who are deaf, deaf-blind, or hard of hearing.
Interior Health is a large region often requiring patients to travel extensively to see their health-care providers. Virtual Care enables more flexible options and convenience when accessing care.
